Bruce Ferguson tells how Catskill residents are fighting back against fracking

Bruce Ferguson is a member of Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, an activist group that exposes the toxic and dangerous methods used to extract natural gas.

Ferguson’s dreams of a peaceful retirement home in a remote corner of the Catskill Mountains came to an abrupt end with the hydraulic fracturing equipment that energy companies use to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation located in western New York and Pennsylvania. While the hydraulic fracturing process that injects millions of gallons of toxic fluids underground is poorly understood and has never been the subject of even a single credible scientific study in the the United States, it has been linked to more than a 1,000 instances of water contamination throughout the country.

Three years ago, Ferguson joined a few of his neighbors in forming an all-volunteer, grassroots organization called Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy that aims to prohibit fracking through education and political pressure. In just three years, their group has expanded to 7,000 members and their outreach program, which includes their website, Action Alerts, and direct mailings, has been shared with hundreds of thousands of people.